


Moment

by zanni_scaramouche



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Love at First Sight, M/M, meet cute, or themes of such, soul mates, you read that right
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:21:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25351567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zanni_scaramouche/pseuds/zanni_scaramouche
Summary: What's in a moment?
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Comments: 10
Kudos: 18





	Moment

**Author's Note:**

> Hmmm… So I wrote this in 2012 (YIKES) Somehow we lost 500 words in the revision but we'll just have to trust the process. Here we are! Short & Sweet.

The sun was still learning how to sow heat into its presence on that early spring day. The day I saw you for the first time.

The cafe was quiet between the rush of office soldiers and midday strollers. My hands were uncomfortably dry from the recent cold weather snap and they moved unpleasantly over fresh printed newspaper, collecting ink with every swipe through someone else’s thoughts and leaving traces where I’d hesitated. On my bedside table was the novel I meant to be reading, the one Gemma recommended two Tuesdays ago, but like any chances of broadening my mind that morning it’d been left behind. The paper in my hands was meant to do nothing more than to occupy my fussy hands with stale words while my coffee was still hot and the world passed me by.

You nearly passed me by. Would have if it hadn’t been for the cyclist. He veered into you and sent us all on a path we hadn’t seen coming. He cried. You fell. I looked. 

I don't like to imagine that moment if he hadn’t hit a crack in the road. He would have whipped by without a thought, you would have kept going to your long planned destination, and I would have kept my eyes on empty words. What a waste it would have been.

The first thing I thought when I saw your face was, “Would you let me love you?’

Instantly I knew I would if you let me. You’d be embarrassed and duck into my shoulder while I mentioned my love for you in every conversation I held with the boardwalk vendors. There would be punches to the shoulder and a fair bit of ribbing, but there would also be an undeniable smile on your rosy face. 

God, I’d do anything to make you smile like that.

No one smiles like you would. You’d smile brighter than a cloudless day and the shade of your cheeks would match the flowers blooming under the tree where we’d have our first picnic. That afternoon would be spent in silence laying side by side. We’d be stealing glances at each other until we were caught with sheepish smiles. Our grins would grow wider until laughter bubbled up and we’d look away, restarting the cycle as our bodies curled closer. 

I blinked and you were on the ground brushing your scraped palms against your trousers. With a twist of an arm to see your elbow you swore at a spot of blood. 

And I thought ‘Yeah, we’d have our bad days too.’

We would and don’t let anyone tell you different. There’d be days when words would fly from our mouths and sink too deep when they struck the mark. It’s possible I’d make you cry. Oh love, I’d never mean to make you cry. Know after storming out a slamming door I would come right back to you, don’t you think for a second I wouldn’t be on my knees begging for forgiveness I would never give myself. And if you took me back I’d hold onto you with a strength that might just break you. Your hold would be just as strong. There’d be tears in our eyes, tears of pain, tears of joy, tears of don’t you ever fucking let go of me again. 

By then you’d finished inspecting the cut on your arm and turned to the cyclist still on the ground. You held out your hand and he gratefully took it. 

As his hand grasped onto yours for leverage I couldn’t help but think ‘I want that.’

Because I did. I wanted nothing more than to feel your touch. To spend lazy days in bed tracing patterns into the valleys of your skin, warm to the touch and glowing under the late afternoon sun drifting in from the curtains. Our love would be passionate enough to fuel volumes of poetry, yet too intimate to be spoken of any way other than in soft breaths against sensitive skin. I would hold you like the galaxy holds the stars. Sometimes you’d look to me as though I’d given you the world. Maybe that would be one thing I could never actually give you, but I would carry it up any hill you requested knowing I would die trying. 

You watched the cyclist pedal away and met my eyes. It was like I felt my heart for the first time. 

Would you let me do that? Would you let me be your lover?

The earth shifted, a second hand clicked, the moment passed. With a sheepish little smile you rubbed your nose and passed me by. Through streaked windows I could see you in the cafe line. You just stood there, breathing and living and being, as though nothing had happened. As though your existence hadn’t rearranged the atoms of my soul. 

So I sat with a crinkling paper clenched in hands too dry to hold anything softly and tried to slot the pieces of myself back together. I couldn’t remember how I’d lived before you. Our future was nothing but a blip in time, a possibility that ended before it began. 

I couldn’t help the ocean of sadness swelling for me to drown in. The sun's warmth couldn't reach me under the sea. 

Metal against stone scraped into my mind and dragged me to the surface. You sat down across from me with a steaming cup in your hands. One leg crossed over the other and both elbows on the table, you sent a small smile like a paper sailboat. A little hesitant, but stable enough with a helpful breeze. 

“Louis.” 

A perfect name because it was yours. 

“Harry,” I returned. 

Nothing special, but it was my own. There were more words I should have said in that moment yet my lips couldn’t form them. I was too distracted looking at the future in your eyes. Perhaps you couldn't see anything but the colour in my irises, and that's okay darling. You didn't need to see it then. I already knew I'd spend the rest of my life showing it to you. 

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is always lovely, just like you ♡
> 
> Find a likeable/shareable post for this fic on my tumblr!  
> https://zanniscaramouche.tumblr.com/tagged/moment


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